UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva stepped up in a big way to help the promotion save UFC 153 after both the main event and co-main event bout suffered injuries to different participants.

Because he wasn’t in full training mode, Silva accepted a fight at light heavyweight against Stephan Bonnar in Brazil to headline UFC 153, which marks the third time he’s competed at 205lbs inside the Octagon.

One thing is for sure however, regardless of the success that Silva’s had at light heavyweight, and even if he disposes of Bonnar at UFC 153, fighting at 205lbs doesn’t interest the greatest fighter to ever compete in the UFC.

“There’s always been a lot of talks about me moving up to 205, I know Dana has talked about it a lot, all the fans have talked a lot about me moving up and facing Jon Jones, but it’s something I’ve never wanted,” Silva said on Thursday.

Silva has tested the waters at light heavyweight in the past only because the UFC has asked him to do so when they needed him, but he’s never planning a permanent move there.

The long time Brazilian champion has plenty of teammates who could challenge UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, but he’s not going to be one of them.

“I won’t be pretentious to say that I want to move up, especially because there’s other guys in that weight class on our team like Rafael Feijao (Cavalcante), (Antonio Rogerio) Minotoro Nogueira, there’s other guys that could potentially face Jon Jones in the future,” Silva stated.

At this stage of his career, Anderson Silva has nothing left to prove to anyone. He’s the longest reigning champion in UFC history by leaps and bounds, he has more title defenses than any fighter in UFC history, and he’s widely regarded already as the greatest fighter of this or any time period in mixed martial arts history.

With less years in front of him in the fight game than behind, Anderson Silva’s goals will revolve around more title defenses at middleweight, and not moving up to 205lbs to face new challenges.

Why fight Jon jones when he can just keep handpicking fighters that dont threaten his title, no respect for this clown , it’s time to test yourself, other than sonnen , he has never been truly tested.

loki

Lmao, Ur the only clown. Every fighter silva faced where at their best at the time except for maybe one or two. Silva just handled them easily. Ur one of those losers that says ‘silva never faced someone like him before, lol he gonna lose, finally’ then when opponent gets shit kicked out of them U say ‘ he was never worthy of title shot! Silva picks easy guys! Waa, waa!

http://www.facebook.com/vincent.colon.92 Vincent Colon

silva is a great fighter nobody can take that away from him but please state the name of the fighters who are worth mentioning.

Cardoso

Rich Franklin 2 times, Nate Marquardt, Hendo, Sakurai, Grinfin, Sonnen 2 times, Belfort… excepting the first fight with sonnen and the first round against dan hendenson, all the fights were like a walk in the park.

MrAdidas

Marquardt was not the fighter he is today, not even close dude and Silva was in his prime, take a look at who marquardt had to beat to get a title fight, not one d those guys were in the top 20 at the time, let alone top 10. Franklin x2, Henderson, Sonnen x2 (but only bc Sonnen spanked silva the 1st fight – everyone thought he was going to get KTFO in the first round), but I still give him credit for Sonnen x2, Belfort?!? He was out for 17 months an his 1st fight was vs. Silva, wow how did Silva beat him, wake up dude. Griffin your saying a big slow overrated Forrest who loves to run in swinging is a great fighter?!? Okay that comment alone proves you have no idea what ur talking about. Forrest beat a 1 dimensional rampage who did nothing since losing to Forrest, a champ who can check Forrest’s leg kicks?!? LoL. B level fighters silva has fought are …. Leben, Cote, Maia, Leites, Lutter, Irvin, Forrest and now Bonnar, which makes half of his padded UFC resume. Decent fighters are …. Marquardt (lucky he’s even considered that at the time he fought Silva), Okami (IMO is overrated) and Belfort who fought Silva after being out for 17 months.

Iznit

Remember after silva beat leban? Right after that he got the title shot and beat Franklin, a guy who many thought was unbeatable at the middleweight class. He was the underdog in that fight. The fact is, the middleweight class has a bunch of talented fighters, but when u are that talented, u just make things look easy. Look at all the pros that are a step above…Tom Brady…yeah it’s his line right? Not so much, he can thread the needle with the best in history if not more. But since he makes it looks easy, all the other qbs must be crap…no they are pros to…not including tebow..lol…

http://www.CombatScienceMMA.com/ CombatScienceMMA

I like the way you think friend. Please be sure to follow me on twitter and fbook. I enjoy talking to true fans like yourself.

Rod

Look up the list of Anderson silva oponents, you might just learn something clown , half the guys he faced we’re finished before entering the octagon , get your head out of your ass and read up on the physical state o fighters , you call yourself a fan , your just a sucker who buys paper views without really knowing who the fighters are , I got a lot more for you if your up for it small town clown

MuayThaiFood

LOL @ paper view!!

shakejunt

nah yo, you’re definitely off base here and are the one who looks foolish

Cardoso

Pathetic… read up on the physical state of thoses fighters? Ok, now you are a fitness coach or a doctor? That can “read” the physical state of the fighter just watching on you tv those ” paper views” that you bought!? Have you ever entered a cage with another guy in a situation that only one was going to win? When probably one will be battered up, fucked up? Probably no… so anderson silva was the winner in his last 16 cage appereances, those 16 times he entered there, and fucked up the guy on the other side… has 34 wins, 4 loses, and is considered by most of the fighters and people that work with fights, the best fighter in the history of mix marcial arts… let me see who is the clow here…

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003975182880 John Phillips

Its so easy to criticize the pro’s. Its so easy to watch a PPV fight or buy tickets to watch your favorites perform. Its even easy to watch a champ defend his belt live.

What’s not easy, what’s incredibly hard and only a few have ever done, it raise that title themselves. To be the ones that sacrificed the hours in the gyms for years on end, who fights the battles in the cage. This is not so easy.

It is easy to hide behind your computer and call people names if they disagree with you. You should try not taking the easy way so often.

passerby23

As much as like to see the Silva-Jones fight, I’m tired of hearing these two give wishy-washy comments about how they don’t want to fight each other. Let Weidman win another fight and put him in there with Silva. That’s the biggest threat to Silva’s belt.

mike

you are right ..a true champ need to prove he a champ .Jon JOne will destroy Silva .can you imagine what jon would do to silva?like what sonnen did in there first fight?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003975182880 John Phillips

you mean lose?

Mradidas

Ugh no, he means get owned on the ground like Sonnen did but with A LOT more power and Jones wouldn’t get cought bc Silva wouldn’t last 4.5 rounds against Jones like he did vs. Sonnen. Jones would destroy Silva at LHW, why do u think Silva wants nothing to do with LHW and only fights LHW “rejects”? For the #1 fighter in the world he doesn’t fight “world class opponents” especially at LHW

Iznit

So GSP must be a punk too bc he doesn’t want to step up to middleweight. Great logic, how about the only reason silva is in the fight was to save the card bc it is in brazil. I agree that Anderson doesn’t want to fight jones, we saw that in the interview. You fight in the weight class that gives you the best chance to win. We were taught that since childhood. Wrestlers, boxers, fighter and contact sports are the same way.

p3ezy

HAH! Ever thought that maybe he has never been tested because there is no one else like him or even close enough to him to test him in the 6 years he has been in the UFC? The closest anyone has got was Sonnen and he still lost. C’mon dude pull your head out.

http://www.CombatScienceMMA.com/ CombatScienceMMA

Just give Silva a title shot right on the spot if he beats Bonnar, Whether it’s against Jones or Hendo if he beats Machida. If it’s against Jones make it for the title and if he decides to vacate it for Machida or Glover then let him and let the division sort the rest out. I know that may sound stupid but this guy deserves a chance to hold both titles especially if he beats Bonnar (based on a short notice and going up in weight fight not b/c of the name)

justin_e

It’s not about deserving a chance. It’s about him not wanting a chance.

Nobama

im a silva fan but i cant help but think he is intimidated by jones and knows he would prolly lose. but for the people saying he is scared, i dont think thats the case cuz i mean these guys are pro’s so i dont think they are particularly scared.

shakejunt

respect for your name

justin_e

Yeah. That’s so clever! It’s like Obama. But with an “N” at the beginning. I get it too. Total respect.

J

Money talks

shakejunt

anderson needs to man up and fight dos santos because if he doesn’t it means he’s scared and that he’s really just been crushing cans for years -_-

everyone complained that he was ducking weidman and now that he wants to finish his work at mw, it means he’s ducking jones? neither guy wants that fight, people need to get a clue.

Nobama

i can understand the weidman excuse he has but jones is a huge name and he says he wants big money fights, thats about as big as the money gets there. but i never said he was scared, i said he is intimidated cuz he is seeing what jones is doing to all the ex champs at 205.be honest who has silva fought at 205? griffin looked like strait poo and it wasnt cuz silva looked that great. as i said before ima silva fan and i should put it out there im not to fond of jones so you would figure it would be the opposite way around but there is no denying jones is head and shoulders above everybody in 205.even if silva started pickiung jones apart in a fight and thats a big if, do you honestly think he is gonna be able to keep it standing when jones starts shooting? nope he couldnt even stay up with sonnen without breaking a few rules.

Timothy Malone

LMAO Yeah Anderson, I’m sure Cavalcante or Little Nog are going to be the ones to beat Jones

onehitwonder

wow didn’t think Anderson would ever back down, what would/could he do if Jones stepped down to 185 for a multi weight record?

liverlips

He said he wanted Jones a year ago. I think he’s gotten cold feet. If he expects GSP to move up in weight to challenge himself, then he should do the same. Better to get beat down by Jones than have your winning streak halted by Bonner.

justin_e

GSP is less likely to move up than Silva.

disqus_1vlWNfdPOM

So pretty much Anderson is saying its a bad match up, and he would be in for a hell of a fight. I respect Anderson, but lets not kid ourselves, he wouldn’t be a favorite in a fight against Jones.

justin_e

True. But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t take the fight. It would be a challenge. One that he is more than worthy of. He can play it safe if he wants, but that does come with a certain negative appeal. It would be different if he weren’t the guy who is the best matchup for jones at 205. Who arguably has the best chance to beat him. He has almost lost to several lesser opponents. It’s bound to happen soon. Why not take a shot at further greatness instead of waiting to be beat by a relative scrub?

justin_e

Regardless of his reasons, we are being deprived of the best fight that could ever be set up. Sad. Looks like our only hope for superfights is at 155 and below. Although you have to wonder if dana showed him the money, if he would do it.

justin_e

And really. If he is going to turn down (or not want) fights with guys like Weidman, he can’t be talking about just needing to stay at MW and defend his title. If he wants big fights, he knows where to find them.